The Thing About Fame


The concept that I do not understand.

Have I thought of being famous at a rare point in my life? Sure, who hasn’t? I’ve realised that’s really not my thing. I can’t even wrap my head around it, especially the current definition of fame : be famous for all things other than your work. (Read: Kardashian clan and similar). Apart from the freebies, it seems like a pretty dreadful lifestyle.

Anyway, the sole reason for existence for this post is an old article on Facebook. It irked me. A lot.  Assuming most of us are familiar with the platform, it is not surprising to see such junk dished out on news feed.

The article was about a man helping out some people by giving free meals, even though he didn’t have the means to do it. This is commendable, admirable. Let’s face it most of us do nothing to make the world a better place. The man is contributing even with the little he has. That’s great. It is awesome.

What I find ridiculous is the line below the article which says “Let’s make him famous”. My problem lies with the “Let’s make him famous” mentality. What if the person doesn’t want it to be plastered across the internet?!

While the intentions were right, it does make me wonder if we cannot separate act of kindness from promotion. (This was obviously not a case of self- promotion.). It also makes me suspicious of such posts with their passive emotional manipulations.

Kindness, contribution, trying to reach the masses is all good. It is brilliant. Social media has helped and contributed in recent times of crisis in faster and efficient manner.


Is fame what everything boils down to these days? It seems being famous and infamous is just about the same thing. Is it the solution for everything? Social made has surely made us ‘celebrity’ crazy.

Such posts are regular on the internet, I feel it is degrading an act of kindness. Yes, social media has helped a lot and has brought communities together, made it easier to access help if not directly contribute. But, it has also managed to trivialise things in general. Good things, pure things, and selfless acts.

This article got me wondering:

  1. How is fame going to help, will making the person ‘famous’ improve his/her financial conditions to contribute on a larger scale?  Or does it mean bringing more attention to the cause or just a way for people to show their sympathy and pretend to be a do-gooder by just liking or sharing the post?
  2. Making a person ‘famous’, without any further assistance or tools, is it really going to help them?
  3. Also, there is a possibility of this person not wanting any kind of fame altogether.
  4. Do we (I included) really think before we share things online? Or is it instinctual to just tap fingers and let the world know what you are thinking?
  5. Why is it that every good act is degraded by this silly 15-minute fame? I really think fame leeches away the sincerity behind the good act. If fame means increasing reach, help –that’s great. Fame for fame’s sake, that’s messed up.
  6. There are other who do good just to be visible, to be trending, what about them? How do you differentiate?

Answers to each of them cannot be absolute. Social media has surely brought this vast information that we don’t know how to process without losing our brain cells. Maybe there would be a public service advertisement in few years to use social media responsibly.


This is no irony, it is kind of hypocritical.

If this was too cynical for your taste, you’ve kind of wasted time reading it, didn’t ya. Oh well… let’s hope WordPress treats you well in future.



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Thanks for reading and keep smiling!

5 Comments Add yours

  1. 1956L says:

    Excellent or rather awesome post.. It got me thinking about the ways the virtual world tries to get attention by posting such acts done by someone & in the process getting fame for themselves by the number of likes 👍

    Very well written, keep it up✍👍👍

    Liked by 1 person

  2. adhi2001 says:

    It’s a true fact. We do mess up and mesh up kindness and fame. Loved your article.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for reading! Means a lot since this post was different than what I usually do.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. adhi2001 says:

        🙂 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

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